Pawlenty: Election 'warning' for GOP

Tim Pawlenty is no longer in the business of elective politics, but he says the 2012 election revealed some serious “warning signs” about the future of the Republican Party.

The former Minnesota governor and one-time co-chairman of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign said Republicans need to work to appeal to a more diverse group of voters.

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“Campaigns and elections are markets,” Pawlenty said in an interview. “You have voters coming forward and registering their preferences in a political marketplace, and the Republican Party just lost market share.”

Pawlenty surprised some in political circles in September when he stepped down from the Romney campaign to become the head of the Financial Services Roundtable, a Washington-based association that represents large financial services firms.

Pawlenty largely stayed out of the media spotlight and political discussions in the weeks leading up to Election Day as he transitions into his job as president and CEO of the Roundtable.

In a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO on Thursday, Pawlenty reflected on the lessons for the GOP in the aftermath of an election that gave President Barack Obama another four years in the White House and expanded the Democratic majority in the Senate.

“Some of the things that I think the Republican Party is facing as a challenge is the need to do better with Hispanic and Latino voters, the need to do better with female voters, the need to do better with blue-collar voters who are folks who are not just from higher income levels but people in middle and lower modest income backgrounds,” he said in an interview at the Roundtable’s offices in downtown Washington.

Pawlenty urged Republicans to recognize the “warning signs on the dashboard” that suggest the market is shifting away from their party and to focus on finding ways to attract the demographic groups that chose to support the president.

“Losing is a pretty good lesson, and I’m pretty confident that they’ll, in the wake of this loss, do the things it takes to try to improve,” he said.

In his new role as head of the Roundtable, which includes some of the country’s largest financial services firms such as Bank of America, Citigroup and Visa, a big focus in the coming years will be the continued implementation of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.

Although some Republicans — including Romney — have argued that the massive legislation perpetuates “too-big-to-fail” financial firms, Pawlenty said Dodd-Frank handles that problem and specifically prohibits taxpayer bailouts.

“It’s very clear that on its face … there will be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts of financial institutions, even systematically important ones,” he said “They put into place higher capital requirements, more oversight and, in the event that there needs to be a wind down of a financial institution, there’s going to be a living will in place as they say, plus a process in place for the orderly wind down” of large, failing financial firms.

As for his own political career, the former presidential candidate said another run for office is “very unlikely” — at least in the near future.

“Obviously I need to stay focused on the responsibilities of this position and not running against anyone in 2014 or running for office,” Pawlenty said.

After that?

“I think that would be very unlikely,” he said. “I’ve committed to not run any time in the near or immediate term and stay focused on running this organization to the best of my abilities. I’m excited about that.”